Craftsman TS Arbor Replacement - Going In Through The Side Works Fine

DerbyDad03 · 2019-03-16T19:54:13+00:00

The standard procedure for replacing the arbor bearings (or the arbor itself) on a 60's/70's vintage Craftsman table saw is to either flip the entire saw upside down or fight gravity and wrestle the innards out through the back after disconnecting the tilt and height shafts, the rear trunnion and a bunch of other parts. There's no way I can (or want) to flip the saw over. I'd have to remove the fence rails, the router table extension, etc. Even then I couldn't flip it over on my own, so I wanted to try something different. I decided to see if I could get the arbor out by going in through the side. To get the arbor out you need to remove the rear bearing retainer ring (3 screws) and a c-clip. (shown below) To get the entire arbor assembly out, all you need to remove is 1 e-clip. Then you can R&R the arbor on the workbench. The problem is, it's really hard to get to the screws or the e-clip from the back or bottom of the TS housing. That's why people flip it over and remove other parts. So, I broke out the oscillating tool and made an access hole: After removing the belt pulley, I had access to the back side of the arbor. You can see the 3 screws for the bearing retainer ring. On the right you can see the link plate and the bottom of the e-clip. I popped the e-clip off of the link, slowly tapped the arbor assembly off of the link pivot rod and height adjustment shaft. Once it was free, I lowered the assembly out through the bottom of the saw and then removed the arbor. Since I had a spare arbor that already had a new front bearing on it, I decided to use that and just add a new rear bearing. Once the rust was removed from all mating surfaces and pivot shafts, the arbor assembly slid right back in. No tapping required. The only alignment issue that I ran into is that the blade is about 1/32" off from it's original position. You can see here where it cut into the zero clearance insert. The insert was getting sloppy anyway, probably from the bad...

Mar 16, 2019 24 Replies

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Leon 7 years ago

Well Yeah, many places would realign with out replacing worn parts.

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DerbyDad03 7 years ago

What kind of fence did you have? I fought the original for too long. Replac ed it with the Delta T3 and it was like buying a new saw. Very consistent.

I had to cut the rails due to the size of my shop. When I upgraded to the Bosch Glide Miter Saw, I was going to sell my old Delta. I never got around to it and glad I didn't:

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Leon 7 years ago

LOL. The tweaks we go through to make this saw into a usable one.

I ended up putting a Jet Exacta fence on it. A smaller version of the one that was on my Jet cabinet saw. That required longer extension wings which I built and covered with plastic laminate. My left and right extension wings were both stamped steel although the table top was cast iron. I also built a fold down out feed table and the saw sat on top of a mobile cart with 3~4 drawers on each side along with a compartment in the center that caught most all of the saw dust. With the cart I no longer used the legs. I never replaced the 1 HP motor. I recall it was difficult to make long cuts with out stalling the motor, until I bought a quality regular kerf blade. I had been using inexpensive think kerf blades.

I used the plans from WoodSmigh magazine for the folding out feed table and mobile cart.

I could probably find the plans and send your way if you are interested.

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DerbyDad03 7 years ago

Is it this one?

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I made a slightly larger one (2' x 2') that slips under the back rail of the Delta fence and has a gap for the rear tab/clip of the fence to slide through.

For most cuts I can pull the saw straight out from it's storage spot and let the back of the outfeed table rest on the workbench. When I need to make longer cuts, I need to pull the saw out farther into the shop, so I added a brace across the rear legs and I have board that sits at a 45, supporting the rear of the outfeed table. When I move the saw, the outfeed table stays with it. When I'm done, the table and board have nook that they live in.

Like you said, tweaks. ;-)

The saw came with 2 stamped steel extension tables, but I don't have room for the one on the left. I lived with the right side one for many years but fairly recently added a router table in it's place. Holy crap, what a great idea that was! ;-)

I struggled with bench top router tables for too long. My shop's too small for a dedicated router table so the table saw addition is a huge improvemen t and the homemade fence has dust collection built in.

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